[meteorite-list] International Astronomical Union Approves Names for Nine Mercury Craters

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2012 10:34:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208091734.q79HYS6G025153_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=226

MESSENGER Mission News
August 9, 2012

International Astronomical Union Approves Names for Nine Mercury Craters

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal
from the MESSENGER Science Team to assign names to nine impact craters
on Mercury. The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite
nomenclature since its inception in 1919. In keeping with the
established naming theme for craters on Mercury, all of the newly
designated features are named after famous deceased artists, musicians,
or authors or other contributors to the humanities.

"All of the nine newly named craters are located in Mercury's north
polar region, and MESSENGER team members and collaborators who are
researching this area contributed the proposed names," explains Mercury
Dual Imaging System Instrument Scientist Nancy Chabot, of the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
"Mercury's north polar region is of high scientific interest because of
the shadowed craters there that host radar-bright deposits that may
consist of water ice. All of the nine newly named craters host such
deposits."

The newly named craters are:

o Egonu, for Uzo Egonu (1931-1996), a Nigerian-born painter who at 13
was sent to England to study art, first at a private school in Norfolk
and later at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. Exile,
alienation, and the pain of displaced peoples were recurrent themes in
his work.

o Gaudi, after Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), a Spanish architect whose
work concentrated largely on the Catalan capital of Barcelona. He was
very skilled with ceramics, stained glass, wrought-iron forging, and
carpentry and integrated these crafts into his architecture.

o Kandinsky, for Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), a Russian painter and
art theorist credited with painting the first purely abstract works.

o Petronius, for Titus Petronius (c. AD 27-66), a Roman courtier during
the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the
Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the
Neronian era.

o Prokofiev, for Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), a Russian composer,
pianist, and conductor who is considered one of the major composers of
the 20th century. His best-known works include the ballet Romeo and
Juliet -- from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken -- and Peter and
the Wolf.

o Tolkien, for John Ronald Reuel (J. R. R.) Tolkien (1892-1973), an
English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known
as the author of the classic fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord
of the Rings.

o Tryggvadottir, for Nina Tryggvadottir (1913-1968), one of Iceland's
most important abstract expressionist artists and one of very few
Icelandic female artists of her generation. She primarily worked in
painting, but she also created collages, stained glass work, and mosaics.

o Qiu Ying, for Shifu Qiu Ying (1494-1552), a Chinese painter who
specialized in the gongbi brush technique, a careful realist method in
Chinese painting. He is regarded as one of the Four Great Masters of the
Ming Dynasty.

o Yoshikawa, for Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962), a Japanese historical
novelist best known for his revisions of older classics including The
Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and
/Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

These nine newly named craters join 77 other craters named since the
spacecraft's first Mercury flyby in January 2008.

"These latest names for major craters on Mercury are important for two
reasons," adds MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of Columbia
University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "The first is that formal
names make it easier to communicate scientific findings about specific
regions and features. The second, equally important reason is that these
designations expand the opportunities to recognize the contributions to
the arts by the most creative individuals from many cultures and eras.
The names of those individuals are now linked in perpetuity to the
innermost planet."

More information about the names of features on Mercury and the other
objects in the Solar System can be found at the U.S. Geological Survey's
Planetary Nomenclature Web site:
http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/index.html.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest
to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury will start a yearlong study of
its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, leads the mission as Principal Investigator.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates
the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.
Received on Thu 09 Aug 2012 01:34:28 PM PDT